From Mexico’s ‘other’ sports car maker – the VUHL 05

Like buses, you wait for one and then two come along at once – first Mastretta and now VŪHL (pronounced ‘vool’), providing us with ‘two’ Mexican sports car makers, where before there was none.

But whereas the first reflects the name of its founders, brothers Daniel and Carlos Mastretta, VŪHL sounds embarrassingly contrived – ‘Vehicles of Ultra-lightweight and High-performance’.

Founded again by brothers, Iker and Guillermo Echeverria, of the Mexican/American design agency, Etxe, the Vuhl 05 will be launched at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed on July 11-14.

The ’05’ is described as a road-legal lightweight supercar, but we’re taking that description with a pinch of salt. It seems to be in vogue these days to call your lightweight sporty thing a supercar, but as far as I’m concerned, the first true supercar was the Lamborghini Countach and anything which fails to match its shock-and-awe doesn’t warrant the label.

Other than that, we know little more about the VŪHL 05, they say its handling was optimised in the UK, the bodies will be fabricated in Canada and final assembly conducted on VŪHL’s behalf by Adman Leku in Mexico City. VŪHL are head quartered in Luxembourg, so all it needs is a Japanese powerplant to qualify for a passport in three continents.

“We intend VŪHL products to be renowned for their effective simplicity and aesthetics guided by a purity of function,” said Iker Echeverria. “The 05 and its successors will also be notable for uncompromising build quality, rigorous attention to detail and a driving experience par excellence.”

The company has some big name supporters include several private equity investors and the Mexican Government, while Magna Steyr, Multimatic and Ford are all involved as suppliers to the project. They also claim a 30 year heritage, following their father’s (Guillermo Echeverria senior) GT and formula racing car career.

They’ve got a website – VUHL05.com – if you’d like to bookmark it and the company has promised to release further details very soon.